


A Failure

by cruisedirector



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgard (Marvel), Avengers Family, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Awesome Frigga (Marvel), Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Canon Compliant, Family, Gen, Minor Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Motherhood, Parent Frigga (Marvel), Past Jane Foster/Thor, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Protective Parents, Steve Rogers & Thor Friendship, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark Friendship, Steve Rogers Can Wield Mjolnir, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Thor: The Dark World Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 14:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21411832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruisedirector/pseuds/cruisedirector
Summary: While replacing the Infinity Stones, Captain America bumps into the Queen of Asgard.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79
Collections: Your Cruise Director's Love Boat





	A Failure

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to dementordelta for quickie beta. Mistakes are all mine.

Steve has put the Aether back into Jane Foster, hoping that its return did not cause her pain. Now he is striding around a corner, following Thor-of-the-future's instructions, to place Mjolnir discreetly in an alcove from which the hammer can be summoned by Thor-of-the-past at a moment's notice. 

Steve is not thinking about the God of Thunder, past, present, or future. He's thinking about a woman on a different world, in a different era, and what's probably a crazy fantasy of going to find her there. Bucky, who's the only person Steve has told, doesn't think it's such a crazy fantasy -- and Bucky knows better than anyone both the pain of lost time and the value of second chances -- but Bucky never did anything as selfish as what Steve imagines himself doing. Still, the hammer remains in his hand, so maybe just thinking about the crazy fantasy doesn't make Steve altogether unworthy.

Such are the distractions preoccupying Captain America when he bumps into the Queen of Asgard.

Though he's only seen images of her in storybook illustrations, there's no doubt in Steve's mind who she is. She is incredibly beautiful. Of course Thor had told Steve that his mother was beautiful, but Thor would have said that, and believed it, if his mother had looked like an Outrider. This woman is magnificent by every standard of beauty Steve has ever known, ageless and strong, confident in her power. 

She reminds him of Thor. 

She reminds him of Peggy.

"Who are you?" she demands, gazing at him with Mjolnir clenched in his fist.

Steve tries to think quickly. He doesn't think Thor can shift his shape the way Loki could. In Steve's experience, Thor's ability to change his appearance is restricted to clothes and hair, and Thor was never very creative in that regard. Although Loki has more skill -- Loki could mimic Steve's appearance perfectly -- surely Loki's own mother could see right through such magic, too. And Loki couldn't lift the hammer. No, Steve can't pretend to be Asgardian.

Frigga's hands move to her hips. She carries a weapon but makes no move to draw it out. "I asked you a question," she says, not unkindly yet sharply, a lady unaccustomed to being made to wait. 

Steve puts on his most earnest Captain America expression, the one that squares his shoulders and draws him up to his full unnatural height. "My name is Steve Rogers," he tells her. "I'm a friend of Thor's."

Her eyes dart again to the hammer in his grip. "You must be much more than a friend."

Is she implying -- no. She's just surprised that a stranger can lift Mjolnir. It's only because Steve has spent so much time with Tony Stark that Frigga's statement sounds like innuendo. The thought of Tony brings dozens of memories to mind at once -- ridiculous memories, infuriating memories, not the somber world-shaking ones that have been Steve's focus for days. _I will be reinstituting prima nocta. You better not be playing Hide the Zucchini. That old suit design did nothing for your ass._ And, to his horror, Steve feels tears spring to his eyes.

Unfortunately, Frigga has no way of following Steve's rambling thoughts. She draws a short, startled breath, then abruptly her hand moves to the sword nearly hidden by the folds of her dress. "Has something happened..."

"No, no! Thor is fine. There was a battle -- there will be a battle -- it's complicated. But Thor is fine." Steve holds one hand up, fingers splayed, in what he hopes is a gesture conveying both _Stop_ and _I come in peace._ Slowly, bending his knees, he sets the hammer down. "He sent me to return this."

Frigga does not release the hilt of her sword. Her eyes remain narrowed. "Not two minutes ago, just past those pillars there, I saw Thor. He was older. He was in pain."

Steve pictures Thor as he looked when the Avengers came together to plan the time heist, a shocking transformation from the strongest man Steve had ever seen into a man who cared nothing for strength or heroic feats. How horrifying must it have been for Thor's own mother to observe such a change? Taking one step closer, Steve tells her, "He's better now. We won. He helped put things right."

"And you helped him?" The tone of the interrogation again reminds Steve of Peggy, whom he misses with an acute ache in his chest. Once more Frigga glances at the hammer, resting on the stones as if anyone could walk by and pick it up. 

Could Frigga pick it up? Steve has never thought to ask Thor that, not even the night their friends all took turns trying, when Steve discovered that he could make Mjolnir budge and stopped because he didn't want to know more. The mechanics of the thing still make no sense to him, he has no idea why it doesn't fall through the ground -- _Elevator's not worthy_ \-- but he's seen what it can do, in Thor's hand and in his own. "I did as much as I could. The hammer helped me help him. I just came here to return it." 

Slowly Frigga's hand moves from her sword to touch Steve's. He's a bit afraid that she can read his mind the way Loki could read minds, but if she's trying, he can't feel it. "'Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor,'" she murmurs. "You must be a man of very great honor to be able to lift it. And, I think, of very great value to my son."

Maybe Frigga does think there was more between himself and Thor than friendship. Steve doesn't suppose she would judge either of them for it -- from a couple of stories Thor told him about Loki, Steve doesn't think that would be condemned here the way it would have been back when he was in the army during the war -- but he doesn't want to mislead Frigga, either. "We were soldiers together. We were like brothers. We fought the greatest threat in the galaxy. Thor and his weapons made it possible for us to win."

"Then I am happy for you both. The Thor I saw had lost his way. I was sure he would find it again." But Frigga's smile is sad. "I wish I could be there to witness your victory."

Though he tries to return her smile, Steve feels his breath catch. He doesn't know exactly what Thor told his mother when he visited here, two minutes and so many years earlier, but he knows that Frigga was raised by witches and that Loki's power originated with her. Of course he won't tell Frigga what Thor told him -- _She dies that day_ \-- but it's as if she knows. 

Tony and Natasha may have lost their lives, and Steve his place in his own time, but in many ways Thor lost more than all of them. He lost his parents, his brother, the sister he had never known and ultimately had to kill, the human woman he had come to love, the friend who watched over him, his eye, his home, his world. Yet he had returned from Asgard, two minutes and many years before, a changed man. 

"He found his way again," Steve assures Frigga. "He always will. He's your son."

That earns Steve a real smile, almost a flirtatious smile. "Flatterer," she accuses. "And what about you? I know who you are, Captain Rogers. Both my sons told me about you." 

Steve gives a start -- he'd forgotten that Loki is also alive at this moment in time, not yet a hero of Asgard, and in fact there could be two Lokis in this very palace, the one in the dungeons plus the one who stole the Tesseract after the Battle of New York. It wouldn't be a shock if Loki tried to use the Space Stone to save his mother. Like Thor, Frigga never gave up believing in her younger son, and Steve can see echoes of Loki's demeanor in her. 

"The soldier. The man out of time. Are you still that man?" Frigga asks, her gaze seeming to see not Captain America but the old Steve, the one with the big heart but no muscle to match it. The one whose photo Peggy had kept in her office long after he was lost to her.

"I told a friend once that the guy who wanted family and stability went into the ice 75 years ago, and I think someone else came out." How vividly Steve remembers that conversation with Tony, standing in the cool air outside the Avengers facility, not sure whether he was lying to Tony or, worse, lying to himself. Now Ultron and Thanos have been defeated, and Tony and Natasha are at rest, but Steve is still alive, and to Steve that means he must still have a purpose. "It's possible that I was wrong."

Frigga squeezes his hand. Her expression is wise and fierce and determined, and again she reminds Steve of Peggy. "Let me tell you what I told Thor. Everyone fails at being who they're supposed to be. The measure of a hero is how well you succeed at being who you are."

Tony never wanted to be a hero, he mocked the very idea, yet he died as the greatest champion the world had ever known. As for Steve -- who has only ever wanted to fight selflessly for the underdog, who should have been the one to fall from the heights on Vormir or snap Thanos out of existence because that's what heroes do -- his path seems less clear even than Thor's. "What if who I am is...not a hero?" he asks slowly.

Frigga's smile turns sad again. "Life is short," she murmurs. "I have lived for thousands of years, and it will have to be enough, but for you, life is as a heartbeat. This day, the next, a hundred years, is nothing." Her lips press together in a determined frown. "If you can lift Mjolnir, you have earned the right to live as the man you are. You deserve to laugh and drink and dance. Think about that while you finish this quest of yours."

At his feet, the hammer stirs. Steve thinks at first that this must be in response to his emotion or Frigga's, but Mjolnir abruptly lifts up and flies past them, over the balcony and out of sight. Steve's task on Asgard, to return it to the Thor of this time, is now complete. The Steve Rogers of this time will soon see the Thor of this time on Earth.

Frigga, however, will never see her son again. These are the last minutes of her life, and she has spent them encouraging Steve to live his own. 

"Thank you," Steve tells her, returning the pressure of her hand and summoning a smile. He thinks that he should add that he'll tell Thor, but he's no longer certain that he'll see Thor again once he finishes this quest. "I should go."

"Yes, you should. You have your destiny to meet, and I have mine." Frigga's voice is calm and enigmatic, yet she winks at him as she moves away.

Steve thinks he knows what it means.

He does deserve to dance.

It's the only thought in his head as the Pym particles take him back to his own world, to the time that should have been his.


End file.
